Khe Sanh 

“Out of the frying pan….”

Quiet, put out that smoke sumthin’s out there I can feel it. We sat like two carnival cats leering into the darkness looking for someone to knock our heads off. Hell I might as well be looking for a flea on a blackboard, but the chill running up and down my spine was real, real as my instinct. It was telling me to gear up cause the shit is about to hit the fan. God damn it, I hate the nights in this bug infested hole. Makes ya feel like a toad in boiling water, by the time ya realize your cooked yer ass is already smokin’.  Sure we got wire and claymores, grenades an all that shit but we might as well have a marquise sign pointing down at us blinking “open all night”. Nuthin’s changed so set your friggin mortars and see if ya can get us airborn.  I remember a week or so ago when Kilo got hit, Christ they never knew what hit em’ for it was too late. Pop-Pop- WHOOM! An then the rice balls were standin’ over their holes with chop sticks ready to dig in. It was one hell of a battle. Sleeping on watch will add ya to the menu of pain, keeping sharp increases yer odds of not ending up in a Vietcong stir-fry.

My eyes are about to bug outta my gourd and my ears are ringing from the silence. All I can hear is skeeters on a fly-by and  I’ll be damned if the hair on my neck aint standin’out straight. Can’t shake this itchy feeling. Like being watched by sumthin hungry and drooling all over ya. Lick, Lick Krunch - time for lunch! That’s the weird thing about this jungle warfare bullshit Ya never know where its gonna come from. We got snakes that’ll drop ya in two steps; Tigers that believe in take out dining and a whole community of mean and nasty black jammerd tree dwellers. The hollow sound of mortars sticks with ya forever and the screaming rockets are only paralleled by the sound of a snipers round ripping bone and flesh. We got it all happening. Adrian K, can stick his GOOD MORNING VIETNAM up his ass. He ain’t never sung the Punji pit blues or sweat blood humpin’ the boonies. The good humor man don’t deliver here and the only USO show we ever see is Puff the Magic Dragon Lighting up the jungle. Fair enough, we grunts wouldn’t know how to react to a round-eyed beauty anyway. Got plenty of other things to think about besides Ann Margaret warmin’ up our innards. It’s hot enough round here as it is!

I’ll be damned. The suns comin’ up, Looks like we made it through another night. I heard we’re headed outta here today. It will be a relief to have a change of scenery eh’ leatherneck? Yep its gotta be better than this hillside squatting. Gonna be able to kick back and relax.

Huh?

Oh, it’s  a remote outpost called Khe Sanh…..

Piece of cake.

Boon 3/23/02